I thought thigh highs and cat ear headsets are the style of the modern hacktivist?
20 years ago, it was The Matrix. 10 years ago, Guy Fawkes masks. Thigh highs and cat ears are the least cringy of the possibilities to date.
to be fair, while not much of a hacker since the days when you could just open windows and delete the password, most of my casual wardrobe could pass for 'cozy pyjama party matrix cosplay'.
but new images are always nice.
That, or a fursuit! There's definitely a current aesthetic imo, but obviously it's a generalization that not everyone fits, as has always been the case.
It's either that or a fursuit
A dude in a full Fox fursuit is the face behind the string of shutdowns that slowed the nation to a halt. I can see it now, FBI dragging the poor guy out of his room, knocking over models and plushies off his desk as he struggles to get his message out to the public.
They even shot his waifu pillow
Wow, I can't believe nobody's even bothered to mention the style from the definitive hacker movie. Just absolutely gobsmacked. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like:
Notably missing from this picture: rollerblades, fingerless gloves, neon dyed hair, tons of fishnets (which I guess you could probably stylize as fish.nets or something), puffy vest, etc.
In my day, being a hacker meant dressing like a weird raver/punk and sending people a GIF of a laughing skull, and that's how we liked it
It's literally part of hacker-ethics to not judge people by their fancy exterior:
Hackers should be judged by their acting, not bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race, or position.
Thanks for posting this!
For those who aren’t familiar - CCC is the chaos computer club, they have lots of talks and events all about tech, politics, intel, hacking/security, etc.
Great resource to socialize with
FFS this comment section is mostly people misunderstanding that John is likely saying this tongue in cheek.
People need to brush up on their cinema.
I think it's even funnier to think of John Waters saying this totally in earnest.
Even his face always looks like he's waiting for you to laugh at the funny thing he said
You're telling me a Doritos-stained shirt isn't an aesthetic?
Drip lies in the eye of the beholder
It is, and I'm tired of pretending that it's not
I think most anti status quo people wouldn’t be interested in the clothing industrial complex
Maybe people are just more comfortable expressing themselves in different and unique ways that don’t conform to one “outfit/style”
Punk tends to lean towards modifying what you have with what tools are available, and shopping second-hand. As a bonus, the inherent aesthetic is harder for the fashion industry to co-opt.
The punk aesthetic was invented by a man who owned a fashion label and had his own storefront.
He ripped it off from a man who was one of punk's founding fathers.
Give us a name to go with the face, at least.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that's Richard Hell.
Correct!
For those not in the know, he was a member of a number of New York punk bands in the 70s. Malcolm McLaren nicked his style (along with that of others) and brought it over to England to sell in his clothing store Sex.
Punk, like 80s punk? Safety pin piercings, jackets with the arms torn off, covered in handsewn patches, egg-white hair glue?
I think hand repaired and hand sewn stuff could easily be it. “I made this dress before taking down the stock exchange”
Okay, I guess I'll put the cat ears away :/
No you fool! That's the fashion he's looking for! Put on the fursuit and thigh high socks and shut down Google!
Yes Daddy, I can't aid the revolution if I'm not wearing my maid uniform
We're the black hoodie guy, which is the media aesthetic the way Ninjas are decked in Kabuki black.
Real ninjas look like peasants because they're covert operatives. Hacktivists look like lower class tech geeks with a band or brand tee (maybe an overworn prized possession like a 1980s Apple tee). The thing is, we willfully choose to look bland, to be not noticed.
If you want to see the modern hacktivist style just look at UnixSocks
Yes please fit into a nice cultural box so you’re easy to profile, entice and hunt
Edit to say you don’t need an age to be an activist. Does hacktivism have an age? Idk I guess younger folks are more likely to do it right now. Maybe hacktivism just needs a democratizing platform. Like enable grandma to ddos
is this resistance or a costume party? either way i think black with bandanas is a boring theme
I just go for punk
I do feel kind of simillarly betrayed. Watch Dogs were my forst point of reference into what hacker subcultures look like, and it has shaped a large part of my life - next month i's going to be 5 years I've worked as a Red Teamer in a cybersec company. I'm also mostly a poser, and the aesthetics simply makes it way more fun - making art that's tied into what you do is great, assuming you dont take it too seriously, of course. Not that I do it, but the way Watch Dogs portraied it, it was fun.
Is it neccessary? Of course not. Is it a shame there aren't many hackerspaces with cool street art, and hacktivists making over the top manifests ajd cool streetart around our town? A little bit.
Some dude in the fucking WSJ is complaining about how hackers look ? What the hell is this?
John Waters made a lot of counterculture films back in the day-- I don't think his tone is complaining
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